Award Winners of 2009

Award Winners of 2009

Enjoy the upcoming holiday season with critically-acclaimed books. From cookbooks to romance, biographies to thrillers - have an award-winning meal with an award-winning book this year! A16: Food + Wine by Nate Appleman, Shelley Lindgren and Kate Leahy Winner of the IACP Cookbook Awards   Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel Winner of the Man Booker Award   The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman Winner of the Newbery Medal and Hugo Award for Best Novel   American Lion by Jon Meacham Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Biography   Blue Heaven by C. J. Box Winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel   The Land of Green Plums by Herta Muller Winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature   Tribute by Nora Roberts Winner of the RITA Award for Best Novel with Strong Romantic Elements We dare you with 115 characters! Can you describe your favorite book using 115 characters or less? We think you can with our Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis feature on the book page. For example: Why you never want to play a tree in a school production of The Wizard of Oz. Vampire falls in love with his dinner. Sort of like the Hope/Crosby road movies, only with baby-eating cannibals. Write a ridiculously-simplified synopsis for your favorite book and it could be featured on our Twitter feed or in a future email. Happy Reading, Amanda & the Shelfari Team

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Shelfari Fall Reads & Recommendations

Fall Reads & Recommendations

Fall is here! The leaves are turning, kids are back in school and it's time to find that perfect book to read. Check out our new book detail pages to discover what you should read next. The following Memorable Quotes, Ridiculously Simplified Synopses and other fascinating facts were added by Shelfari members; find your favorite books and add your own contributions. Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay Quote: "I caught a glimpse of my face in the mirror as we glided. I looked as eroded as the groaning lift. What had happened to the fresh-faced belle from Boston, Mass.? The woman who stared back at me was at the dreaded age between forty-five and fifty, that no-man's land of sag, oncoming wrinkle, and stealthy approach of menopause. 'I hate this elevator, too,' I said grimly. Zoe grinned and pinched my cheek. 'Mom, even Gwyneth Paltrow would look like hell in that mirror.' I had to smile. That was such a Zoe-like remark." See more Memorable Quotes, Character descriptions, Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis and more for this book. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis: As heroines go, Olive Kitteridge is about as far away from a Disney princess as Maine is from Florida. See Character descriptions, Memorable Quotes and more for this book. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson This is what you get when you cross popular tags for: computer hacker, revenge, thriller and Sweden. Discover a prominent character who "felt like a bag of bananas that had been left too long in the sun." See Character descriptions, Series information, Summary and more for this book. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak Quote: "'And now,' cried Max, 'let the wild rumpus start!'" See more Memorable Quotes, Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis, Summary and more for this book. More Popular Books in September

Happy Reading, Amanda & the Shelfari Team

© 2009 Amazon, Inc., Click here to modify your email preferences. Amazon.com, 701 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104

Learn more about your favorite books

Learn more about your favorite books

Shelfari Members, We just launched a beta version of an exciting new feature! We've created all-new book pages with information that's editable by everyone in the Shelfari community. Some good examples can be seen on these popular books: Check out the book pages for your favorite reads and start to fill in some of the different sections, like Cast of Characters, Memorable Quotations and Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis. Each of the sections makes it easy to fill in missing information using the "edit" link to the right of the section title. When editing a section you'll note there are guidelines to help you understand the intended usage of each. Please send feedback if you have ideas or suggestions to improve the guidelines or the sections we've made available. In case you have questions about how to add information to your favorite books, we've created a new group called Shelfari Book Page Editors. We'll do our best to help answer related questions in that group. We're starting with pages where the content is often sparse (especially for many of your more obscure favorites), but this is where you come in -- just like when we started with empty bookshelves, we know that the Shelfari community will rapidly begin participating and contributing to what will become the world's best book information resource.

Happy Reading, Amanda & the Shelfari Team

© 2009 Amazon, Inc., Click here to modify your email preferences. Amazon.com, 701 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104

Summer Beach Reads & Site Updates

Summer Beach Reads

Summer is here and we'd like to highlight a few new books our editors and the Shelfari community both love! Come check them out, or create your own Summer reading list by looking at What's Popular. NEW: Better Search The Shelfari book search is now better (and faster) than ever! We've made improvements to the overall search experience, and you'll find that books which were previously unavailable (typically books in a series) can now be added to your shelf. We've also included the ability for the community to help remove duplicate books from our catalog, allowing you to help us make search the best it's ever been. Just use the "combine them" link at the bottom of any search results page if you see duplicates. We look forward to your feedback. Have a great summer!

Best, Amanda & the Shelfari Team

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Congratulations 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Finalists!

Shelfari would like to congratulate the 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Finalists. Three finalists have been selected from among several thousand qualified writers in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest searching for the next popular novel, sponsored by Amazon.com, Inc., Penguin Group (USA), and Createspace. Find out more about the three finalists, read short excerpts of each manuscript, and recommend your favorite to other Shelfari members by visiting the Author Pages located below. Reviews from the expert panel (including Sue Monk Kidd and Sue Grafton) are available at www.amazon.com/abna. Voting is open until Thursday May 21st at 11:59 PM EDT. Make sure to cast your vote for the Grand Prize winner at www.amazon.com/abna. The 2009 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Finalists are:
	Ian Gibson, Victoria BC, for Stuff of Legends The author, who works at a theatre in British Columbia, developed the characters in this novel from a comic strip he created in 2003. Stuff of Legends is a comic fantasy about heroism and celebrity, where a 15-year-old boy's fondest wish is granted and he is teamed with his idol, superhero Jordan the Red, to defeat villains, monsters and demonic armies.
	James King, Wilton CT, for Bill Warrington's Last Chance A corporate communication specialist for the past 20 years, the author earned his master's degree in Creative Writing in 2008 as a way to achieve his lifelong goal of writing fiction. In the novel, Bill Warrington is diagnosed with Alzheimer's and decides it's time to reestablish ties with his estranged children. After several attempts at a reunion fail, he decides the only way to get his feuding sons and daughter talking is to kidnap his 15-year-old granddaughter.
	Brandi Lynn Ryder, Napa CA, for In Malice, Quite Close A Napa resident who grew up in the gold-mining town of Sonora, the author draws inspiration for her novel from her passions for Impressionist art and French culture. The novel opens in 1979 San Francisco, where an unlikely relationship forms between 15-year-old Karen, who longs to escape her abusive father, and wealthy art collector Tristan Mourault. Tristan gains Karen's trust and she soon adopts a new identity as his daughter, sending the two on an extraordinary odyssey that spans 15 years and two coasts.
© 2009 Amazon, Inc., Click here to modify your email preferences. Amazon.com, 701 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104

Shelfari: What's New in March

What's New!

You've probably noticed some new changes popping up on your shelf. We've been working on an easier, more enjoyable way to add books to your shelf, write reviews, add ratings, find similar books and so much more. Come check out the new look. Easy Add Just click the blue "Add" button that appears beneath each book and it will be added to your shelf. Questions about adding & editing your books? Easy Edit Once you've added a book to your shelf, you'll see a green "Edit" button beneath your book. Clicking Edit will display a window where you can do all that fun Shelfari stuff (reviews, ratings, tags, categorizing, etc). We've moved some features from the book page into this window so you'll be able to do everything you want with your books from anywhere on the site. Learn more Improved Book-information Pop-up The pop-up window that appears when you mouse over a book is now smaller and disappears immediately when you move your mouse off of the book cover. This popup shows your review, rating, which list the book is on (I'm Reading, Favorite) and which other friends and members have read the book (and their rating). New FAQ The answers to your questions are just a click away! The "Help" link in the upper-right corner of Shelfari will take you to our Frequently Asked Questions section. Select a topic from the drop down menu and then click on the question that you have. You will see your answer instantly appear. In case you missed it! We've expanded our search field and advanced search options. Learn more

Happy Reading! Amanda & the Shelfari Team

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Popular Shelfari Books in January

Are you busy working on your New Year's resolution to read 25, 50, 100 books in 2009? Or catching up on the books you wanted to read last year? You can narrow down that "planning to read" list by checking out what genres were popular last year and what's popular in 2009.
Most popular tags in 2008
Fiction also see Pulitzer Prize and Contemporary Fiction Fantasy also see Alternate Reality and Fairy Tales Non-Fiction also see Behavioral Economics and Biography Mystery also see Whodunnit and Intrigue Romance also see Paranormal Romance and Romantic Suspense	Series also see Epic Fantasy and Quest Young Adult also see Teens and Coming of Age Historical Fiction also see Biographical Fiction and Historical Novel Classic also see 18th Century and Comedy of Manners Humor also see Comics and Satire
Popular Shelfari books in January Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel "Brilliant book. Everyone made such a fuss over Jonathan Safran Foer's debut novel ('Everything Is Illuminated', which I dutifully read first), but I much preferred this, his second novel. It is hilarious and touching. It deals with the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks on New York City in a profoundly beautiful manner. Of course someone had to write a novel about one of the many children who lost a parent (in this case a father) in the attacks, it seems so obvious now. What better way to get at the core of the emotional fall-out than to examine it through the eyes of a child? Little Oskar Schell is a wonderful character, perfectly drawn. I didn't want the book to end, to be honest..." ~K W Revolutionary Road "Uncompromisingly brutal. Yates incisively dissects the shallowness behind the American intelligentsia class; rebellion for the sake of rebellion never felt so empty and self-deluding. And yet you want these characters to find their own paths because one sees oneself in them, even as they make one's skin crawl. The only weakness is in plotting. It's episodic and lacks focus; as a road it meanders, but the realism is incredible." ~Drew J The Boy in the Striped Pajamas "A moving story about a nine year old boy named Bruno whose family moves to Poland when his dad is transferred to work at a concentration camp. Bruno has no idea what his dad does or who the people in the striped pajamas on the other side of the fence are. We see the holocaust from the innocent point of view of a little boy who makes a best friend among the thousands living inside the camp..." ~Chulabird54 Diary of a Wimpy Kid "My 10 year old cousin recommended this book to me and has checked to see if I've read it almost every day. This is a big deal. She doesn't particularly like to read. I've mentioned her before in some of my other reviews/discussions. I usually have to present something as a gimmick in order to get her to read it. This is the first book she's asked me to read. ...Sure Greg Heffley's got a bad attitude, but he's hilarious and besides the occasional 'gonna', he 'writes' pretty well. I found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion. Greg's completely clueless and that is what makes him so endearing." ~HemingwayHeroine Marked "...Marked is the first novel in this series and at first I had a bit of trouble getting into the plot of the story but once I got a couple of chapters in I was definitely hooked. Zoey Redbird is one unique teenager and her world of having vampyres always existing is a fascinating world. Sixteen-year-old Zoey Redbird has just been Marked as fledgling vampyre and joins the House of Night, a school where she will train to become an adult vampire..." ~Phoebe Jordan
Site Update Not sure what new books are coming out? Want to know what new features Shelfari has just launched? Now it's easy to stay up-to-date on Shelfari news and other interesting book events since we added the Shelfari and Omnivoracious blog feeds to your What's New page.
Happy Reading! Amanda & the Shelfari Team
© 2009 Amazon, Inc., Click here to modify your email preferences. Amazon.com, 701 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104